Главная > Реферат >Остальные работы

Сохрани ссылку в одной из сетей:

Treatments Of Alcoholism Essay,
Research Paper

Treatments of Alcoholism

University of ???

TREATMENTS OF ALCOHOLISM

Alcoholism can destroy the life of an
alcoholic and devastate the alcoholic’s family. But it also has
overwhelming consequences for society. Consider these statistics from
the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence:

*In 1988, alcoholism and problems
related to it cost the United States an estimated $85.8 billion

in mortality and reduced
productivity;

*Fetal alcohol syndrome, caused by a
woman’s drinking during pregnancy, afflicts five thousand

infants a year; it costs about $1.4
billion

annually to treat the infants,
children and adults

afflicted with FAS;

*More than twenty thousand people die
annually in

alcohol related car accidents.
(Institute of Medicine, 1989)

Clearly alcoholism harms society in
numerous ways and it is in society’s best interest to find
effective treatments for alcoholics.

The primary goal of all treatments
for alcoholism is to get the alcoholic to stop drinking and refrain
from abusing alcohol in the future. The paths to this goal are
diverse. Several factors – biological, social and psychological –
influence why an individual becomes an alcoholic. So treatments vary,
depending upon why the alcoholic drinks and what the physician or

therapist believes is the best method
for recovery. Some treatments focus on the physical addiction of
alcoholism. Others emphasize the alcoholic’s social or
psychological cravings.

Alcoholics Anonymous and Rational
Recovery are two support groups that help alcoholics recover. Other
alcoholics benefit from one-on-one therapy with counselors, who may
help patients understand drinking and change their behavior. Finally
for some alcoholics, the most effective treatments are those that
combine medical treatment with counselling. Such treatments enable
the alcoholic to more easily break the physical addiction to alcohol
as they evaluate their social and psychological reasons for drinking.
Two of these treatments are: Nutritional Therapy and Network Therapy.

Nutritional Therapy

“Alan Dalum was 37 years old and
thoroughly convinced he was soon going to die. Dalum was not dying of
cancer, heart disease or any other illness from which one can leave
the world with dignity. Dalum was dying of alcoholism.” (Ewing,
1978) Just when he lost all hope for recovery, Dalum discovered a
center that emphasized the importance of biochemical repair in
alcoholism recovery using nutrients and herbs. Upon learning that
Minneapolis, where he lived, had one of the only programs in the
country that employed such methods, Dalum decided to give the
Center’s six – week, outpatient program a shot.

The Health Recovery Center (HRC) in
Minneapolis claims a 74 percent success rate (patients still sober
one year later) and differs from conventional programsin several
significant ways. First, it focuses on uncovering and treating
physiological imbalances that may be causing alcohol cravings and
throwing the entire body out of whack. For example: hypoglycemia is a
common imbalance found in up to three quarters of alcoholics. The
center’s philosophy is simple “Until the body begins getting the
essential nutrients it needs, recovery cannot begin.” (Ewing, 1978)
They believe that no amount of talk will stop the cravings, anxiety,
depression, mental confusion and fatigue that result from alcohol’s
biochemical and neurochemical damage. “There is not time to obsess
over past traumas when you’re dying of a major disease. Why do
people persist in believing that the damage done by excess ingestion
of alcohol can be undone with psychological methods alone?” (Ewing,
1978) The Health Recovery Center is devoted to the restoration of
bodies, minds and spirits that have been ravaged by alcohol.

Such restoration begins the moment a
new patient walks through the door. After the staff physician takes a
thorough medical history and performs the initial physical exam, the
patient is hooked up to an IV solution, out of which drips high doses
of ascorbic

acid (vitamin C, a powerful
detoxifier), calcium, magnesium, B vitamins (which help eliminate
withdrawal symptoms), evening primrose oil (a natural anticonvulsant)
and a full spectrum of amino acids including glutamine (an
alternative form of glucose that significantly diminishes cravings).
While conventional programs frequently numb new patients with drugs
like Librium and Valium to help ease withdrawals (and later must wean
patients off of them), HRC’s formula is entirely natural. “The
sum total of it all is that people go from consuming half a quart of
alcohol a day to consuming none at all – without drugs.” (Ewing,
1978)

Following the IV, HRC patients are
supplied with bottles of the vitamins and minerals they have been
deficient in for so long and put on a diet that is free of sugar,
salt, caffeine and most importantly, nicotine. This is because
tobacco is cured with cane, beet and corn sugars, which may not only
cause intense cravings in those with hypoglycemia (and render them
incapable of getting the condition under control), but may also
stimulate allergic/addictive reactions in those sensitive to sugar
and corn, two of the most common hidden food allergies.
“Sensitivities to corn, yeast, barley and other foods commonly
found in alcoholic beverages are the reason some patients cannot stop
drinking.” (Ewing, 1978)

In the ensuing six weeks, HRC
patients meet once weekly with a nutritionist, once weekly for
individual therapy with one of HRC’s five certified counselors,

and daily for group sessions, at
which they talk openly about such subjects as anger, humor and
insecurity. Such sessions are purposely not like conventional twelve
step meetings, at which participants are expected to talk about the
power they believe alcohol has over their lives. Rather, both the
group and individual sessions focus on the here and now. “We call
it rational management therapy. First we make a list of the client’s
goals, long and short term, and map out ways they can achieve them.
We decide together what they need to work on and we try to get them
to do things that will make them feel good about themselves.”

(Ewing, 1978)

In sharp contrast to the AA approach,
HRC counselors try to instill in patients the belief that they are in
control of their destinies, that they have power over alcohol rather
than the other way around.

Network Therapy

Twenty years ago, Marc Galanter was
appointed as a career teacher in alcoholism and drug abuse by the
National Institute on Mental Health. Galanter found nothing on the
technique of resolving a drinking or drug problem for a patient who
came to the doctor’s office.

Since then, researchers in addiction
have begun to develop a systematic understanding of how drug and
alcohol dependence wreak their effects on thinking and behavior. But
there are still very few descriptions of a comprehensive approach
that the therapist can apply to addicted patients. “Few therapists
venture beyond recommending to alcoholics that they attend AA or take
a long break from job and family and go away to a rehabilitation
hospital.” (Stepney, 1987)

Marc Galanter developed an approach
that engages the support of a small group – some family, some
friends – to meet with the substance abuser and a therapist at
regular intervals to secure abstinence and help with the development
of a drug free life.

The majority of Galanter’s patients
(77 percent) achieved a major or full improvement. They were
abstinent or had virtually eliminated substance use and their life
circumstances were materially improved and stable.

Marc Galanter named his therapy
network therapy. Family and peers become part of the therapist’s
working team, not subjects of treatment themselves. “Social
supports are necessary for overcoming the denial and relapse that are
so compromising to effective care for the substance abuser.”
(Stepney, 1987) Together, the group develops a regimen to support the
recovery, one that includes individual sessions as well as meetings
with this network. The therapist continues to meet with the network
while the abuser focuses on ways to protect continued abstinence and
on the psychological issues that would allow the achievement of full
recovery. As time goes on, the abuser’s abstinence is secured, the
network sessions are held less frequently and individual therapy
continues. “A social network is apparently a necessary vehicle to
stabilizing the cognitive components of patients’ recovery, to
allow them to deal with the reality they need to see and to provide
the support essential for accepting the new reality.” (Newman,
1987)

The purpose of network therapy is
then to create an atmosphere that will allow an alcohol or drug
abuser to experience relief from distress by participating and

moving towards a drug free outlook.
After initial sobriety has been achieved, network sessions often
acquire a social quality.

In order to act out a pattern of
behavior that is clearly self-destructive, addicts must adopt a
pattern of denial. This denial is supported by a variety of distorted
perceptions: “persecution at the hands of employers, failings of a
distraught spouse, a presumed ability to control the addiction if
wanted.” (Newman, 1987) This cognitive set is not only unfounded,
but it is also at variance with the common sense views of the drug
free family and friends. Because of this, intimate and positive
encounters with them in the network produce an inherent conflict
between addicts’ views and the views of network members. The addict
must resolve this conflict, or cognitive dissonance, in order to feel
accepted in the group. The network therefore creates an ongoing
pressure on the addict to relinquish the trappings of denial.

Typically, addicts deal with this
conflict by defensive withdrawal, but if their network is properly
managed, cohesive ties in the group will engage them and draw them
into an alternative outlook. Gradually,

they come to accept that their
distress can be relieved by a change in attitude, as denial and
rationalization are confronted in a supportive way. Over time,
engagement in the network allows an addict to restructure the
perspective in which the addiction has been couched.

For addicts, both healthy and faulted
attitudes have long coexisted in conflict with each other and the
cognitive dissonance produced by these contradictions has driven them
into a defensive stance. In a proper, supportive context, a
constructive view premised on abstinence and on acknowledgment of the
harmful nature of drug use can emerge. Addicts can experience a
“conversion” of sorts, perhaps gradual, but real nonetheless.

(Johnson, 1980)

There is hardly any disorder more
complicated and difficult to treat than alcohol/drug dependence.
Perhaps because alcohol dependence is so complex, it has attracted
various professions and approaches, each having its own notion of
etiology and treatment. The point is that treatment needs to be
conceptualized for the patient as a long term process of years with
the principle task for recovery being to provide the most effective
treatment for a given person with a given problem. But until and
unless researchers find a specific biological cause and cure for
alcoholism, treatments will continue to vary, depending upon the
alcoholic and the therapist.

Похожие страницы:

General Theory OfAlcoholismEssay, ResearchPaper There are many theories ofalcoholism, and some approaches ... instead of one theory, there are many theories and treatments. ... (1996). The natural history ofalcoholism. Alcohol Health & Research, 20, pp. 152- ...

AlcoholismEssay, ResearchPaperAlcoholism is a deadly disease in which ... of men and women who help each other solve their common problem ofalcoholism ... cover expenses. ( critical review of A.A.) Most treatments are famous for having twelve ...

AlcoholismEssay, ResearchPaperAlcoholism 1. What is alcoholism? 2. How do people become alcoholics? 3. What are the effects ofalcoholism? 4. How ... cure for alcoholism, once an alcoholic always an alcoholic. However there a treatments that will ...

AlcoholismEssay, ResearchPaperAlcoholismAlcoholism refers the drinking of alcohol to such a degree that major aspects of one ... become an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a complex disorder for which a combination oftreatments may be ...

Methods Of Therapy Essay, ResearchPaper METHODS OF THERAPY Therapy, from a psychologist’s viewpoint, ... source of support. For example, if someone has now had an alcoholic ... and aggressive tendencies. Both of these treatments have many side-effects and ...